Takayasu arteritis preceded by cardiac and cutaneous lesions. A case report.

A diagnosis of aortic insufficiency and mitral stenosis was made in a 24-year-old woman after an episode of heart failure following delivery. A double valvular replacement was performed 4 years later. At that time she suffered from recurrent episodes of erythema nodosum like lesions with an histological diagnosis of cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa. After another 4-year interval she presented with severe arterial hypertension and a biological inflammatory syndrome. An arteriography disclosed stenoses of the abdominal aorta, renal, and iliac arteries as well as occlusion of the right subclavian artery, diagnostic of Takayasu arteritis. We postulate that this woman presented a rare combination of cardiac and skin involvement of Takayasu's disease which preceded the classical arteritis of the aortic branches by 8 and 4 years, respectively.